Learn More About Alumni

People at ILR

Michael Gold

Associate Professor of Labor Relations, Law and History

Labor Relations, Law, and History

Overview

Michael Evan Gold was born, reared, and educated in California. He attended elementary and secondary school in San Jose, received a bachelor of arts degree from the University of California at Berkeley, and completed his formal education with a law degree from Stanford. Thereafter he served for three years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Liberia, West Africa; in the first year he taught mathematics and English in a junior high school, and in the next two years he taught Civil Procedure and Evidence in the law school of the University of Liberia. After a year of traveling, he returned to California. He practiced law for three years, then for two years was an associate professor of law at the U. of San Fernando Valley College of Law. He accepted an appointment to the ILR School of Cornell U. in 1977.

Prof. Gold then practiced law for three years with Schwartz, Steinsapir & Dohrmann, a firm representing labor unions and individuals in Los Angeles. Although much of his time was devoted to advocacy in arbitrations, he also litigated cases in employment discrimination and union democracy. After a year as a part-time instructor at an independent law school in Los Angeles, he accepted an appointment to its full-time faculty and taught courses on remedies, civil procedure, and employment discrimination law. He also served as an arbitrator in a labor-management dispute.

In the ILR School Prof. Gold teaches courses on ethics, labor and employment law, and justice. He has published introductory books on labor law and on employment discrimination law as well as articles in scholarly journals on sex discrimination, the theory of disparate impact, and age discrimination. At present he is attempting to develop a new approach to teaching law.

Teaching Statement

Prof. Gold presently teaches courses on Labor and Employment Law, Ethics at Work (which is an introduction to ethical philosophy), and Justice (which is an introduction to political philosophy).

Research Statement

Prof. Gold has published books and articles on labor law, employment discrimination law, and legal reasoning. He is presently doing research on consequentialism and judicial restraint.

Outreach Statement

Prof. Gold has taught numerous courses on labor law and employment discrimination law in ILR's Extension Division.

Michael Gold. 2004. Disparate Impact Under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law
. 25(1):1-86.

Michael Gold. 2003. Some Recent Developments in Federal and State Labor and Employment Law, Labor and Employment Newsletter
. 28(4):38-58.

Michael Gold. 2001. Towards a Unified Theory of the Law of Employment Discrimination, Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law
. 22(1):175-256.

Michael Gold. 1990. A Spring of Discontent, ILR Report
. XXVII(2).

Michael Gold. 1985. Griggs' Folly: An Essay on the Theory, Problems and Origin of the Adverse Impact Definition of Employment Discrimination and a Recommendation for Reform, Industrial Relations Law Journal
. 7(4):429-598.

Michael Gold. 1985. The Similarity of Congressional and Judicial Lawmaking under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, University of California at Davis Law Review
. 18(3):721-748.

Michael Gold. 1981. A Tale of Two Amendments: The Reasons Congress Added Sex to Title VII and Their Implications for the Issue of Comparable Worth, Duquesne Law Review
. 19:453-477.

Michael Gold. 1979. Of Giving and Taking: Applications and Implications of City of Los Angeles v. Manhart, Virginia Law Review
. 65(4):663-709.

Textbooks

Book Chapters

Michael Gold, Suzanne Cohen. 2002. Finding NLRB and Related Court Decisions. in A Guide to Sources of Information on the National Labor Relations Board. New York NY, United States: Routledge, 2002. Gordon T Law Jr.

Michael Gold. 2002. The Law of Labor Relations. in A Guide to Sources of Information on the National Labor Relations Board. New York NY, United States: Routledge, 2002. Gordon T Law Jr.

Michael Gold. 1994. Employment Discrimination Law and the Assumption of Equality. in New Approaches to Employee Management. Greenwich CT, United States: JAI Press, 1994. David M Saunders.